SC stays SIT probe into Ishrat Jahan encounter

New Delhi: In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the SIT probe in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.

The apex court issued the orders on a petition filed against the probe by the SIT, which was constituted by the Gujarat High Court.

Police officers who were part of the Ishrat Jahan encounter are unhappy with the SIT probe.

They had recently demanded a CBI probe into the encounter that was widely believed to be fake.

The cops had earlier filed an application before the Gujarat High Court but Justice Jayant Patel had refused to entertain the petition.

The Gujarat High Court had recently threatened to transfer the inquiry into the Ishrat Jahan encounter case to a Central agency if the state government continued to hamper the work of the SIT set up to independently probe the encounter.

Ishrat Jahan, Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in June 2004 by the city Crime Branch police, who accused the four of being Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives out on a mission to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.